There were jazz hands. And singing.

That’s what happens when you bring together four authors—Libba Bray, John Green, David Levithan and E. Lockhart—with a flair for the dramatic. The event, held last night at the packed South Court auditorium of the main branch of the New York Public Library, was aptly subtitled An Evening of Readers’ Theater. It showed the audience that if this whole writing thing doesn’t work out, all four of the authors could probably have new careers as readers—especially if they read together.

Each of the authors read a selection from their most recent work: Bray’s Going Bovine, Levithan and Green’s co-authored Will Grayson, Will Grayson and Lockhart’s The Treasure Map of Boys. The twist, however, was that they were each assigned parts and read the selection almost as if it were a play.

The Treasure Map of Boys was the first up, with Bray reading the part of the narrator and heroine Ruby Oliver, Green reading the part of Ruby’s semi-love interest, Noel, Levithan reading the part of Hutch, another student, and Lockhart reading Nora, who is a close friend of Ruby’s. The scene was an important one because it illustrates one of Ruby’s fatal flaws: being unable to keep herself from flirting with someone who is technically off limits.

The authors read together exceedingly well; it was clear that they not only rehearsed but also deeply understood each other’s work. I’ve read The Treasure Map of Boys but found the reading to be extremely vivid, almost to the point where it changed the way I perceived the scene. As a reader, I knew that Nora was seriously annoyed with Ruby. But hearing it out loud—particularly with Lockhart’s delivery and inflections as Nora—made what Ruby did seem even worse.

The authors proceeded onto a selection from Green’s Will Grayson, with Levithan reading the part of Tiny Cooper. His delivery got the biggest laughs from the audience and his pronunciation of the word “boobs” particularly amused Green, who commented on it afterward. The back and forth following this reading gave Bray a case of the giggles, which persisted into the next reading (a selection from Levithan’s Will Grayson) and eventually led Green to say, “Don’t make me take narrator! Because I’ll do it.” This helped Bray to recover and get through the rest of the selection without laughing.

The second part of the reading was vastly different. The authors, Levithan explained, would be reading from unpublished works in progress. As a result, he asked that no notes be taken or video or audio recorded. What was interesting was that all of the authors are working on something different from what they had published before. Green, for example, is working with a female narrator while Lockhart is working on a book for middle-grade readers.

Despite the changes in genre and perspectives, it was still possible to hear the authors’ distinctive voices. This part of the reading felt much different than the light-hearted first part. The authors read more slowly and seemed almost shy and tentative, possibly because of the unfinished nature of what they were reading.

Samantha Rowan is a journalist and aspiring YA novelist in New York City. Her favorite novel is Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.

Look for The Star Shack in June.

Sarah Mlynowski followed Daphne, with a reading from her book Gimme a Call, which is out next month. As the topic was first drafts and revisions, she told us all that she absolutely hates writing first drafts and considers the process to be torture.

But she got lots of laughs — good, earnest, “we-love-you-Sarah” laughs — as she read from her first draft. This seemed to annoy Sarah.

“No laughing!” she said. “This is the bad draft!” Whatever, Sarah. Bad draft or not, you’re still way ahead of most of us.

She continued to tell us that, even if you’re trying to write about a character being absolutely miserable, you can’t make the reader miserable. This is a good point.

By the way, Sarah writes outlines for all of her books. Some of them are fifteen pages long!

In my next post later today, I’ll tell you about some more of the authors who spoke last night.

The authors on the panel are Nick Burd, Matt de la Pena, Gordon Korman, David Levithan, Barry Lyga, Michael Northrop, Jon Skavron and Jake Wizner.

I won’t be able to make it, but if you go, please do report back here and tell us how it went.

Also, tomorrow is the BIG DAY, on which the Most Famous Authors of Them All will speak. It’s going to be at the main branch of the NYPL on 42nd Street, and will feature Libba Bray, John Green, David Levithan and E. Lockhart. It all starts at 6 p.m. Be there! The authors will talk about Going Bovine, Will Grayson, Will Grayson, and more.

PS. I’ll be back later today with more about last night’s panel. There was too much awesomeness for just one post!

Eliot Shrefer, whom you may know as the author of the fantastic (and scary!) School for Dangerous Girls, read from his upcoming work, The Deadly Sister. To be honest, I didn’t settle in very well for his reading, because he gave these signs to David Levithan (author, editor, and event organizer extraordinaire). What I mean is … look for yourself:

Right. So as Eliot read from his first draft, David kept butting in with these signs. There was one with an X on it, meaning that David — in his editor hat — was cutting whatever Eliot was saying. There was one with a talky bubble, which David held up whenever he wanted to interject a thought of his own. And there was one, the one David holds here, that said “insert,” which usually meant David wanted to add a word that made the sentence more grammatical.

It was hilarious. Also? Scary. Because David was switching signs every few seconds, cutting and interjecting and inserting until Eliot’s work was whimpering on the floor. Here is what Eliot looked like as he read while David edited:

Eliot, by the way, is a fan of outines. “You’re actually driving a really large bus when you’re writing a novel,” he said, comparing an outline to a Pinto. (You have probably not seen a Pinto, but just think of it as a non-functional Smart Car from the 1970s.)

Next up was the lovely Gayle Forman, who read from her most recent novel, If I Stay. Gayle had some choice things to say about YA writing and editing. For example: “I kind of keep quiet to my friends in the adult publishing world about the amazing quality of the editors that I work with.” (This made me want to stand up and cheer, in a sort of nyah-nyah nyah-nyah way, for YA lit and authors and editors and fans.)

Gayle is not only a great writer, but she has awesome hair and the coolest black boots I’ve ever seen. Alas, the boots are not pictured, but I assure you that they had the best chunky silver hardware I’ve ever seen.

She talked about having something called a “nurse log,” which is a defunct, never-to-be-published book out of which many of her ideas grow. Oh, and she told us that she knows a novel is done when she can read it aloud without gagging. If only my gag reflex were so intelligent!

More TK — There were a ton of authors, and I will write about every one of them, but it may take a little while. Keep checking back!

Much love,
brina